Advances in computing and networking technology have made new forms of media content possible. For example, interactive media content is available that viewers (or “users”) may not only watch, but actively participate in as well. One type of interactive media content is interactive television, where media content programs may include embedded code that implements games and/or other interactive features that users may select or otherwise use to participate in the interactive television programs. For instance, code embedded within an interactive television program may allow a user to have an influence on a narrative of the interactive television program (e.g., by choosing what decisions a protagonist of the interactive television program makes to influence how the narrative proceeds).
Another type of interactive media content is virtual reality media content, which may immerse users into interactive virtual reality worlds that the users may interact with (or “experience”) by directing their attention to any of a variety of things being presented in the immersive virtual reality world at the same time. For example, at any time during the presentation of the virtual reality media content, a user experiencing the virtual reality media content may look around the immersive virtual reality world in any direction with respect to both a horizontal dimension (e.g., forward, backward, left, right, etc.) as well as a vertical dimension (e.g., up, down, etc.), giving the user a sense that he or she is actually present in and experiencing the immersive virtual reality world.
Interactive media content may be configured to be independently controllable in the sense that each user may view and/or experience the interactive media content differently (e.g., viewing different narratives in interactive television media content based on decisions each user makes, experiencing different areas of an immersive virtual reality world at different times based on where each user looks, etc.). As a result, specific data representative of specific parts of independently-controllable interactive media content (e.g., parts tailored to specific interactions of each user with the interactive media content) are traditionally transmitted to each user by way of point-to-point (i.e., unicast) media delivery protocols. However, when a large number of users desires to view or experience the same independently-controllable interactive media content, point-to-point media delivery protocols may be inefficient and/or may place an undesirable burden on systems and/or networks providing and/or carrying the data representative of the interactive media content.